OAKLAND — In October 1985, Bennie Brewer was arrested in connection with a neighbor’s shooting death but later was acquitted of the killing by a jury, authorities said.

Police don’t think he will be as fortunate this time.

Brewer, 50, is now the suspect in Oakland’s first homicide of 2005, the stabbing death Saturday of his 51-year-old girlfriend, Shona Williams, slain in the tiny bungalow they shared in the 1006 block of 76th Avenue.

Homicide Sgt. Jeff Ferguson said Brewer told 9-1-1 dispatchers he stabbed Williams, said the same thing to the first officers to respond to the scene and also confessed to him and his partner, Sgt. Phil Green.

“Not based on the statement he gave us,” Ferguson said Sunday. “He’s done beating homicide cases.”

Ferguson said the slaying ended a “pretty turbulent” relationship the pair had since meeting and moving in with each other last February.

He said police had arrested Brewer, a phone company employee, three times last year for domestic violence against Williams, including stabbing her in August.

But each time she declined to cooperate or would not show up at court hearings, so Brewer was released, authorities said.

Ferguson said that Saturday the two had been drinking and got into yet another argument, mostly over money. Brewer wanted to leave, but Williams would not let him.

The argument escalated and Brewer got a kitchen knife about 12:09 p.m., went to the bedroom and stabbed Williams, Ferguson said.

He then called 9-1-1 and waited for police to arrive.

Williams was rushed to Highland Hospital, where she died at 12:48 p.m.

Ferguson said Brewer made his admissiions to him and Green in the same interview room he was taken after the 1985 shooting. “He said, ‘it’s a long time since I’ve been here,'” Green said.

He was arrested on suspicion of killing Williams.

In the October 1985 case Brewer was charged with voluntary manslaughter in the shooting of a 29-year-old neighbor to death at an apartment building in the 2300 block of 13th Avenue where the two men lived.

The dispute apparently involved a relative of Brewer’s, police said at the time. The neighbor was armed with a knife and Brewer shot him, police said. He was later acquitted by a jury who thought the killing was in self-defense.

Harry Harris is a Pulitzer Prize winning breaking news reporter for the Bay Area News Group. He began his Oakland Tribune career in September 1965 as a 17-year-old copyboy. He became a reporter in 1972 and is considered one of the best crime and breaking news reporters in the country. He has covered tens of thousands of murders and other crimes in the East Bay. He has also mentored dozens of young reporters, some of whom continue to work in journalism today.

Around 5:35 p.m., CHP officers responded to a report of the incident in westbound I-580 lanes at Main Street. En route, officers learned a vehicle's driver said a person in another vehicle brandished a handgun and fired a shot.

In addition to evacuating 10 neighboring homes, deputies restricted pedestrian and vehicle traffic in the area while the sheriff's office bomb squad "safely disposed" of the explosives, officials said.